Households’ living standards are improving at the slowest rate in more than 50 years, as soaring immigration fuels population growth and the economy stalls. The Telegraph has more.
New figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that real GDP per head, which is often described as a measure of average living standards, is growing at the slowest rate in decades.
It has increased by only 0.3% a year on average so far in the 2020s. This is much lower than in any previous decade since at least the 1970s.
GDP per head has slowed as the population has grown faster than the economy. Net migration added 1.5m to the population across 2022 and 2023. The economy grew by 4.3% in 2022 as the U.K. bounced back from the pandemic but growth slowed to just 0.3% last year.
The economy has not kept pace as a result of a worklessness crisis and persistent problems with productivity. The number of people out of work from sickness has surged to a near-record high of 2.8 million, fuelling fears of a spiralling benefit bill.
The ONS said: “Long-term sickness, ageing of the resident population and net migration for reasons other than work each may have been factors that contributed to a higher population outside of the labour force.”
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